Close Encounters of the Bus Kind

[48]

Most of the girls looked to Gina with the expectation that her overall weirdness and knowledge would allow her to understand all that was going on. She seemed just as clueless as the rest of them. Beyond waved a hand.

“Explanations with immense details can be handed out to all of you later. I have a few housekeeping matters to deal with though. First…”

She squeezed her hand a few times and then did a quick snap with a radiant spark flowing out. A shimmer washed over the prone body of Tonya as she looked over herself in horror.

“What did you do?!” Tonya howled.

Folding her arms, Beyond explained, “Since you wanted to play at being a normal teenage college girl, I decided to add to that sincere state. You’re organic now.”

“YOU SICKO! EEWWWEEEWEWWW! I’m made of rotting meat!“ Tonya’s hands fumbled across her body like she was trying to handle a leaking garbage bag.

“Obviously. That also means you can’t covertly signal your escape craft or slip between dimensions when someone’s back is turned.“

“YOU CAN’T DO THIS! I’m 10,000 years old! You can’t trap me in this gross shape! I’ll…”

With another snap, Tonya blipped away. Beyond noted, “That’s better. I just sent her to one of our waiting rooms to be processed and detained while we investigate and file charges. Evangeline? I am afraid the next part is on your shoulders.”

Eva looked around and tightened her jaw. “I don’t think you can just skip over explanations for us. If you want us to do things, we need to know more. Or there’s the door.” She pointed her thumb across the way. The other girls folded their arms and glared at Beyond.

Beyond was dressed in a purple polyester coat with a long, matching skirt. She looked vaguely annoyed but not angry. “Surely that motor mouth spilled all the oddities of the last week. Tonya Hill was secretly a Grey alien hiding out on Earth for several years and harvesting the soul spirits of humans to illegally sell to buyers. We only recently discovered this because she tampered with our information-gathering systems. Her device recently quit, signaling to us that she was ready to… bounce… As you kids say.” Nadia detected a faint grin that slipped past Beyond’s stern exterior as several in the group expressed exasperation.

Beyond cleared her throat. “Greys are synthetic and don’t have souls. They always crave human ones.” Louise and Gina were furiously taking notes and gave each other a quick fist bump. Beyond clarified the spelling was GREYS while pointing out there was a species name, but she preferred not to say it.

“We only recently discovered that she planted a complicated scent trail to lure… the Amashasama… an explorer species of crab-like beings who examined all of you and made you healthier. As well as accidentally activating your innate but dormant abilities. She also posed as someone named Agent Cross and we believe she monitored your development in the hopes of sucking your abilities out when they were at their most developed and valuable. We don’t know who her buyer is, but we’ll track them down. Tick tock tick tock though. And I don’t mean the app. You don’t want to see what a broken, unrealized reality looks like with a time paradox.”

Nadia stepped towards Luna and asked, “Erin…?” The little girl dropped her head and slowly nodded. “Surprise. I’m glad I don’t have to keep it a secret anymore. Thanks for telling me as much as you did. You know it’s a lot to remember every piece of continuity in the past that I have to do and keep it inside this little brain. At least, it’s her problem now.” She gestured towards Erin and stuck out her tongue playfully.

Beyond emphasized that, “Everything Luna has said and done needs to be said and done by you exactly the same way or we have a reality-breaking paradox.” Erin‘s eyes widened as she glanced over at the kid, who assured her, “I’m sure you’ll be fine.” Erin had barely managed to grapple with the notion of a future version of herself.

“How?!” Seemed to be the overriding question. Beyond gestured to Eva and Erin.

“It’s already been done. More than once.“

Eva waved her hands in the air. “Could you just shut up?! Why didn’t you show up before? Why didn’t you help any of us in the last week in a way that we really needed? Now, you want me to just shout at Erin and what… send her back to whenever for whatever reason? No… No. I’m a teenager. We’re all teenagers and we’re rebelling.”

Beyond released a long, frustrated breath. “You’re asking me why I didn’t show up before when so many important things rely on the fact you’re always going to be several steps behind and there are several things that need to be done without question? If we all stop existing…”

Eva pressed, “Then, we all stop existing. I’m not going to be bullied around by anyone. Not some soul-sucking alien or some dimension-hopping bitter old schoolmarm. We have the right to respect. We have gone through so much shit. We have cried and held one another. We’ve faced death. We’ve fought for every moment together. We’re not tools. We’re not cogs. We’re RED ROCK RIDERS!”

The girls all cheered together pumping their fists with some nervousness and uncertainty but enthusiasm. Beyond looked like she wanted to stroke her forehead in frustration again, but she dropped her hands and turned out her palms.

“… I’m sorry. You’re right. We did things wrong. We kept you all out of important things. Even though it turned out the way it did. But I’m asking you now… Please… Something must be done.”

Eva still seemed tense but slowly nodded her head and glanced around at the other girls. “What do I do?”

On this point, Luna explained. “Send me back to last Saturday. I mean, send Erin back. Erin…?” The kid rushed over to Erin‘s side and held her close, passing her the necklace. A waterfall of information and explanation spilled against her ear. Erin did her best to absorb as much as possible before she resolved that it was enough.

Nervously, Erin stepped towards Nadia. “I’m gonna see you again soon… but you’re not gonna know it’s me. That kind of sucks. I could just squeeze you so tight that I never wanna let you go. Why…why didn’t I do that more?” Luna pranced over and squeezed Nadia with both arms. Erin took a deep breath.

“I’ll see you on the other side, girlfriend. I love you. Always. Time to make things right.”

Erin stood in front of Eva as she fanned her arms around and still struggled to comprehend what she was supposed to do. She latched onto the notion that she had already done this before and she was just completing a weird temporal loop. Gina began explaining some of the details that she understood, but Eva cut her off.

“I can’t think about it. I have to just do it…”

And then she struggled with not being able to do it for several long seconds with audible frustration. The room went quiet as the confused mass of girls gave them as much space to do what they needed to do. Eva focused on Erin with tension and bitterness and anger and whatever emotion she had to wield to fling open a door in time. But it all felt so ineffectual. Then, it clicked.

She looked over at Gina and Louise and thought about the other Gina who went on ahead of her to her hopeful reward. They would be together again someday, even if they had to part for a little while. She barely resisted tearing up as she thought about the separation of the love before her. Separation but also joining.

Her voice didn’t need to crack the heavens or build all her rage behind it. She just needed to believe her words. Believe them…as she needed to believe that for all the terrible things she had done and might do in the future, that there was somehow true forgiveness and love for her.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Tears finally in her eyes, she spoke with determination, “Go back to last Saturday as Luna Baris and save us all.”

A wave of pure, protective golden light unfurled from Eva‘s breath and enveloped Erin. In one last moment before she faded away, she smiled at Nadia.

When she was gone, Luna stepped forward and passed the older, weathered necklace to Nadia. She squeezed her tight and admitted, “Unfortunately, I have no idea what I’m supposed to do now.”

Nadia cleared her throat and looked at Beyond. “So… what now? How do I get her back and what happens to Luna?”

Beyond took this opportunity to fold her hands and raise a curious eyebrow. “That one’s not on me. That’s on you. And I suppose I better admit to being facetious when it came to your particular abilities. We suspected it would be better if you limited yourself to just thinking that ability boosting was all you could do. Gina is thinking of a story on the Internet that applies.”

Gina was actually lost in thought while rubbing her chin. She smiled and confessed, “I was… SCP-2006, I think. It’s a… a little story on the Internet about a silly diving helmet rubber suit monster form taken by some weird entity. It wants to scare people. So, this group limits what it knows about what people are afraid of. It thinks campy 1950s movies are the height of terror. But everyone’s afraid of if it finds out about what people are actually scared of… sooo…you tried to make Nadia think the same way, that she was limited to just power boosting. What is she really… Oh my gosh! She’s a REALITY WARPER!”

That seemed like much more of an epiphany to Gina than to anyone else. Thessaly took a moment to ponder all that and even open up her phone to do a search for SCP. Eva urged her not to do that.

Nadia swallowed and asked Beyond, “Is that what I am? Does that mean like I can just do whatever to warp reality to change anything?”

“That’s one name. For us.“

“You’re one too?”

The old woman made her way over to the bleachers and sat down. She soon remarked that they were terribly uncomfortable.

“I’ve been saddled with an immense responsibility to shape, steady, and organize pieces and possibilities of reality. I clean up everything with a careful hand so that the world keeps spinning. It’s exhausting and it’s something I would never wish on anyone else. If you choose to accept that part and possibility of yourself, you’re going to have to deal with that. As far as Erin, I literally can’t tell you what to do about it. I don’t know. I’ve never done anything quite like this. I’ve done a lot of things, most of them I regret. But you have to figure this out.” Beyond slumped down against the awkward bleachers with a shrug.

Nadia swallowed and looked at little Luna, who nervously smiled. It was all on her. Okay…okay. Eva did a cool thing, and she was sure that she could do something like that as well. Reality warper. She could… Warp reality? Like she thought in the vision, anything she wanted to do was possible. And that was scary. How hadn’t she blown up the world already with that capability? Oh gosh, no! Don’t even think about that possibility! Why was she born with this kind of thing?

Despite that tangle of thoughts and ideas, the world fortunately didn’t go poof. Either it was more stable than she suspected, she was subconsciously holding herself back, or Beyond was probably keeping things in line as she freaked out. Yeah, that seemed likely. But how was she going to fix Luna and Erin?

Luna gently squeezed her leg. “She’s in here. She doesn’t understand what’s been happening the last couple of days, and I feel so bad for imposing on her. But she loves you too. You’re her favorite sister, even though she says that to Kira as well. Do what you can for her. She deserves to give her sister her best hugs. Save me, if you can.”

Nadia tensed up. “We’re not sacrificing anyone. Your mom is expecting you home tonight. And our parents are expecting Luna.”

Luna shut her eyes. “Sharon isn’t really my mom. My real mom is a Florida bitch who I escaped. Taliah has some issues, but she loves her kids. I wouldn’t mind being her little girl. And Duman already sees me as his daughter. You can shuffle us around. Put me in the backseat and let Luna live her life. That’s fine…”

“NO! No… I have put myself in the backseat for so many years. Even when I am the driver. No one deserves to be back there. Both of you deserve to be loved and live your lives. Both of you will be free. I swear it…” Nadia pressed her head to Luna’s. Her feeling was to strain and push all her energy out into the world to make things right. Flood it. Overwhelm it. Make it the way she wanted. But nothing changed.

How could she feel so powerful and so helpless at the same time?! What was she supposed to do? It felt like there was a wall inside her skull keeping everything out. Like she couldn’t get over her…herself. She couldn’t… Get over herself. That was it. It was all on her. None of this was about how hard she pushed or the energy she threw into the universe. That was like tying off her rear end as tight as possible while trying to go on the toilet. She had no idea how it looked to everyone else that a giggle emerged from her when privately considering that analogy. But it was the truth.

She was fighting for and against herself simultaneously. Eva already practiced the correct way for her. It came down to one simple truth… did she truly want this?

Yes.

Then do it.

When she opened her eyes, with no energy or light or other special effects, Erin and Luna were there hugging her on each side. Nadia breathed with relief and held them close. The girls clustered around them in confused but gleeful celebration.

Elsa showcased all sorts of mouth sound effects about their battle against the “alien fake”. Gina and Louise raised numerous questions about why Greys went after cows. Thessaly looked like a leaf that might blow away on a breeze and held onto others with tearful appreciation and encouragement. Sasha nudged Nadia playfully and suggested all sorts of girl transformation possibilities that could be seeded in the world. She especially resolved that something like the necklace held between them would be an awesome transformation vector, even if it appeared as costume jewelry with a fancy name and a tantalizing history. For the girlcrafting!

Odessa presented the possibility of at least making a mockup. Tatiana thought that sounded really pretty, but she blushed at the things it would do. Eva halted Gina before she listed out magical properties to give it. Leslie hovered nearby and joyously thanked Coach for giving her the meditation lessons which, she felt, saved her life.

Meanwhile, Marisol eyeballed the old lady suspiciously and pulled Audrey close as she cautiously questioned what anime tropes might foretell about her intentions for them. Although Marisol’s eyes darted around just as suspiciously about what others would think of her for invoking anime. Audrey brushed her cousin’s short hair as though she were petting a cautious puppy. Her thoughts centered on the Old Master trope and mused if this nameless old lady might be looking for her replacement.

Clearing her throat, the old woman from Beyond said, “My name is Ruth. And I have a proposal for the group. A choice, if you will. For each of you and your futures… Miss Audrey Navarro is not far off. I am looking for successors. All of you. I would like the volleyball team to join Beyond and safeguard this world. You’ve seen the dangers and monsters out there. And you don’t want to be left on the outside. That’s fine by me. You can join us. What do you say?”